396 MILDRED WEST LORING 



exception found for adjectives was in the results for subject I and 

 for nouns in the results for subject IV. These have already 

 been explained. This increase varies for adjectives from 18 

 sigma to 196 sigma and for nouns from 10 sigma to 332 sigma. 



3. The position of the accent in stimulus nouns and stimulus 

 adjectives has no systematic effect on the reaction tune. 



4. There is no interpretable variation in reaction time accord- 

 ing to a logical classification of the stimulus nouns for the noun- 

 adjective association. The reaction time remains relatively 

 constant within the limits of word length. The variations can 

 be attributed to a difference in the number of cases in the various 

 groups. 



5. From observations of the subjects during the course of 

 the experiments is to be concluded that two or three separate 

 hours of work are sufficient for the subject to become adapted 

 to the experiment, to lose any emotional disturbance due to sex 

 difference between experimenter and subject, as far as this last 

 can ever be reached. Inhibition of associations from such a 

 cause we are persuaded was at its minimum during the whole 

 experiment for all subjects. 



6. It is impossible for a subject to keep at the top notch of 

 tension throughout the whole of one session, and necessarily 

 not for the whole experiment, to the same extent that this is 

 possible in getting reaction tunes on a few words. That which 

 we call "tension," whatever its physiological mechanism, was 

 evident for the first two or three words of each list. It was in- 

 dicated by a distinctly shorter reaction time and an observable 

 muscular rigidity in the subject. The reaction time then sud- 

 denly became longer and remained more or less uniform through- 

 out the list. It is probable that this later uniformity is due to 

 an adjustment to a certain comfortable physiological tension 

 that can be maintained through the course of one hour's work 

 at a time, for three days a week, throughout several months. 



Conclusions for the verb-object and verb-subject associations 



1. The reaction time for the verb-subject association is longer 

 on the average than for the verb-object association for stimulus 

 words having the same number of syllables. This is probably 



